China’s 200 richest lawmakers are worth more than $500bn, according to the Hurun Report, which tracks the fortunes of the country’s wealthiest people. The Communist party officially welcomed private-sector business people into its fold in 2002, when the Chinese economy was the world’s sixth-largest. Their wealth has since soared in tandem with the Chinese economy, which is now second only to that of the US. According to […]
BEIJING China’s leaders are expected to telegraph their willingness at this year’s annual parliament meeting to let reforms overtake policy stimulus as their priority amid concerns over financial instability in the world’s second-largest economy. Pro-growth policies, evident by a lending binge and increased government spending last year, have fueled worries among policymakers about high debt levels and an overheating housing market. Top leaders at the National People’s […]
The last thing many people before they do before they go to sleep is browse through their social media feeds until their eyes get too tired and they eventually turn in for the night–probably with their smartphone in or next to their bed. While they are shutting down for the day, chances are they aren’t powering down their phones. And the first thing they do when they […]
GENEVA Syria’s warring sides both claimed U.N. peace talks in Geneva were going their way on Thursday, but the chief government negotiator and Syria’s ally Russia accused the main opposition delegation of trying to wreck the talks. Syrian government negotiator Bashar al-Ja’afari told reporters that he had discussed “substantive issues, particularly counter-terrorism” with U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura, and would continue on Friday. The government delegation has […]
Uber’s US rival Lyft is seeking $500m in a new fundraising round to provide fresh ammunition as the transportation company takes its fight with Uber to a growing number of US cities, according to two people close to the process. The fundraising comes at a time when Uber has been struggling with a series of public relations crises, including allegations of sexual harassment and a video of […]
Photo Hosni Mubarak, the former president of Egypt, was taken back to a military hospital in Cairo on Thursday after a court session. Credit Mohamed Hossam/European Pressphoto Agency CAIRO — Egypt’s top appeals court cleared former President Hosni Mubarak of any responsibility for the killing of hundreds of people during the 2011 protests that ended his 30-year rule, sweeping away the final legal hurdle to Mr. Mubarak’s […]
Interested in precious metals investing or storage? Contact us HERE Written by Peter Diekmeyer (CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL) Gold prices have surged (+8.57% EOD Wednesday) since January. However, one expert says that trend could continue. “Shrinking exploration budgets, a dearth of new high-quality deposits and the “fear trade” will provide continuing upside pressure as the year unfolds,” says Brent Cook, editor […]
Uber is now in the process of getting a permit from the California DMV to resume testing its self-driving vehicles on public state roads. Uber started testing its self-driving Volvo XC90 SUVs in San Francisco last year – but the state DMV ultimately opposed the tests since Uber had not applied for its autonomous testing permit prior to beginning service. While Uber took its test fleet of XC90s […]
Technology accelerates by leaps and bounds, which can only spell doom for most workers’ economic prospects. How long before a robot or algorithm can do your job, leading to mass “technological unemployment?” Machines are learning to master once-unthinkable tasks. Yet, even though our software can best us at Jeopardy! and our hardware has learned to run and jump, there’s still no consensus among economists that […]
By Lauren Hirsch | NEW YORK NEW YORK Snap Inc’s (SNAP.N) shares continued to defy doubts about the company’s early-stage business model and slowing user growth, jumping nearly 50 percent in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The owner of the Snapchat messaging app raised $3.4 billion in its initial public offering on Wednesday night, more than the $3 billion Facebook (FB.O) […]
Credit: Scott Meltzer/public domain Despite advancements in fuel-saving technologies over the last 25 years, on-road fuel economy for all vehicles is up only one mile per gallon during that time. In an update to research conducted two years ago, Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute say that actual, on-road fuel economy for the entire fleet of vehicles (including cars, trucks, […]
Another singer with a Filipino connection is making waves on a reality talent competition. Anatalia Villaranda, the child of Filipino immigrants, impressed the panel during the premiere episode of the 12th season of The Voice US on Monday. Performing a cover of the hit pop track Runaway Baby by Bruno Mars (who also happens to be Filipino-American), Villaranda turned the chairs of all four judges Alicia Keys, […]
She was arrested and charged with supporting terrorism, not because of her novels but as a result of her affiliation, as an adviser, with a newspaper linked to the Kurdish movement that has since been shut down. She still faces a trial that could land her back in prison, and with that hanging over her, she has been living with her mother, sleeping late, not writing much […]
By Luke Baker | BETHLEHEM, West Bank BETHLEHEM, West Bank A year ago, Nuseir Yassin, a 24-year-old Harvard graduate, was living in New York city, working for a successful hi-tech company and earning $120,000 a year. Despite it all, he couldn’t escape the feeling that life was passing him by. So for the past 328 days, he has been travelling the world – from Nigeria to Myanmar, […]
Oman’s government has given itself breathing space from the pressure of financing a large budget deficit by selling $5 billion of international bonds, almost completing its entire foreign borrowing plan for 2017 in a single issue. Wednesday’s bond sale, in tranches of five, 10 and 30 years, was about double the size that most investors had expected and a huge amount for a country which returned to […]
ADEN: Two US drone strikes killed at least four suspected Al-Qaeda members in southern Yemen on Thursday, security officials said, barely a month after a controversial US commando raid against the jihadists.The first strike targeted the home of a known Al-Qaeda member in the Yashbum Valley in Shabwa province, a provincial security official told AFP.Four suspected militants who had been standing outside the house were killed, he […]
Jeff Sessions, the US attorney-general, failed to disclose during his confirmation hearings that he twice met the Russian ambassador while acting as a close adviser to Donald Trump during last year’s presidential campaign. Mr Sessions met Sergey Kislyak on September 8 in the then senator’s private office in the US Capitol building, after having spoken with him briefly two months earlier at an event sponsored by the […]
WASHINGTON — The United States conducted airstrikes overnight Thursday against several suspected Qaeda targets across south-central Yemen, according to American and Yemeni military officials, the first American attacks in the country since an ill-fated Special Operations raid in January. The coordinated series of attacks against Qaeda militants occurred in three Yemeni provinces that have been areas of suspected terrorist activity — Abyan, Shabwa and Baydha — according […]
Pre-orders, the video game industry’s nasty push to coax you into exchanging money for products before they’re released, are awful offerings. Busted launches, abusive DRM, and general industry shenanigans have made it a foolish endeavor to give publishers money before hardware or software is thoroughly analyzed by journalists, influencers, or hardcore fan communities. Yet, I pre-ordered a Nintendo Switch without hesitation. I recognize my hypocrisy […]
Middle East fund managers have turned more bullish towards Saudi Arabian equities on hopes that corporate earnings may finally have bottomed out after a slide due to low oil prices, a monthly Reuters poll found. The poll of 13 leading fund managers, conducted over the past week, also found they had become very bearish on Qatari and Egyptian shares. The poll found 62 percent of managers expect […]
In The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State, journalist Graeme Wood aligns himself with the Orientalist tradition of Bernard Lewis, who warned liberal students against projecting secular frameworks on contemporary Muslim politics. Lewis believed religion, not secular grievance, was the prime motivator of this politics. This may or may not be true. In any case, the argument has limited explanatory power. It doesn’t explain […]
CK Chow struck a cautious note at the start of the week when revealing the Hong Kong Exchange’s annual results. With average daily turnover down 37 per cent, the exchange chairman’s wariness was understandable as he talked of a “challenging” outlook and volatile markets. Yet such caution is out of step with the mood in the market. Hong Kong’s blue-chip Hang Seng index and the Hang Seng […]
By John Ruwitch | SHANGHAI SHANGHAI The fortunes of the richest 100 members of China’s parliament and its advisory body – all dollar billionaires – grew about 64 percent in the four years since Xi Jinping rose to power, according to data from an organisation tracking wealth in China. Xi has overseen a crackdown on corruption and decadence, and made the fight against poverty a top priority […]
This Sept. 6, 2012, file photo, shows the Amazon logo in Santa Monica, Calif. Amazon’s cloud-computing service Amazon Web Services experienced problems in its eastern U.S. region, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017, causing widespread problems for thousands of websites and apps. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File) Usually people don’t notice the “cloud”—unless, that is, it turns into a massive storm. Which was the case Tuesday when Amazon’s huge cloud-computing […]
